Music

Interview: Who is TEEN?

by Anne T. Donahue

A few months ago a remix album from Woodhands was released which contained a number of solid tracks by well known DJ’s. But the stand out track was the kick-ass club ready interpretation of CP24, remixed by somebody that nobody seemed to have heard of.

Later we got wind of an earlier remix the mysterious DJ had done for  the Valery Gore track ‘Shoes of Glass’.  The re-imagining completely mutated the original track turning it into a drugged up night out compared to the easy sunday morning’ness Gore normally offers up. These remixes challenged conventions and more importantly, expectations.  The byline “Teen Remix” was popping up everywhere.  Who’s behind this stuff, and why did it seem like she or he sprung onto the Toronto dance scene out of nowhere. We sent our blogger, Anne, to answer the question – Who is TEEN?

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To say Amy Aubrac-Prince’s past is eclectic would be an understatement, since by the age of 17, she had already lived in France and New York, and was out on her own producing attention-grabbing dance music .  Now contributing to Toronto’s ever-evolving dance scene, Aubrac-Prince – now known as TEEN – has established herself as an artist challenging conventions, maintaining individuality, peaking interest and holding her own.

“I first pursued electronic dance music after getting obsessed with the New York disco era of the late 70s and 80s,” she began. “I was living in NYC at that time, [and] that music and those clubs [were] just so amazing, and I really feel like it’s a vibe that I would have loved to have lived through. It’s so strange when [you’re] nostalgic for an era that you never saw. It’s the groove of house and disco music that is so attractive to me – there is nothing more exciting than making people dance, I think.”

Though always drawn to the electronic genre, shortly after her move to Toronto, Aubrac-Prince teamed up with a friend and fellow DJ to form the punk rock duo, Sugar Kane, but returned to dance music after a year to create their own tracks and remixes.  However, she maintains that while some similarities are drawn between the two genres, their differences are still pronounced.

“What I love about punk is the simplicity and the idea of trimming and sculpting away so that you are only left with the most important, strong [and] essential musical elements,” she explained. “. . . Some parts of dance music now don’t remind me of punk because I guess dance is more superficial, and people are fickle and always looking for something new so quickly. I think the competition that [it] produces is great, though.”

No stranger to the dances scenes across Europe, Canada and the United States, Aubrac-Prince has infused her French upbringing into her current sound through her experiences at nightclubs and introduction to the genre at such a young age:

“People from Toronto have said to me that I am lucky to be from France because I was probably exposed to dance music and clubbing at a younger age than people here. Also, this might just totally be a personal thing, but when I listen to my music, it really makes me think of the beaches in the South of France.”

However, while each area of the world boasts its own eclectic and distinct dance culture, it is within Canada that Aubrac-Prince finds the most room for improvement.

“Maybe I shouldn’t say it, but I do find that the dance scene in Toronto is a bit uptight,” she confessed. “Lots of chin-stroking, and sometimes lots of jocks. In Europe – and even New York – there are a lot more girls doing really great dance music than in Toronto. Even the indie rock scene here I think is a big boring. It seems very concerned with being mature, with being serious and respectable.”

“I like music that is simple and fun,” she continued. “Like the Stooges or the first Beastie Boys album. It’s not bad to make music that is simple or poppy or that is sugary. I [like to] think of making my music . . . like making candy.”

In the spirit of making music that’s fun and accessible, Aubrac-Prince has remixed music by the likes of Daft Punk and Streetlab, earning kudos for her upbeat, energetic and likeable tracks.

“I do totally consider remixes to be just as important as originals,” she shared. “What I love about remixes is writing new grooves and creating new harmonies underneath the vocals. I really love working with people’s vocal tracks and re-contextualizing them. Writing an original song that I think is hot is really exciting, but I think remixes are just as valid.”

Though she has yet to release an album of her musical efforts, Aubrac-Prince hopes to make her record debut within the following months, planning to release an EP but going so far as to hope for something full length.

“I am very excited to release an EP,” she revealed. “[There’s] been lots of interest from different labels in North America and also in Europe. It may actually be an LP that I release, but we will see. I think of my music as what the kids in Clockwork Orange would listen to – including the girls at the record store eating the popsicles – but someone wrote a review of the TEEN MySpace and said they imagine TEEN as the music that the Panther Moderns (from Neuromancer) listen to.”

“My goal is to push myself to keep on making great grooves in my songs,” she added. “I think my EP will show that I can hold my own and compete with other producers out there. Maybe this is so cocky, but I think I make some of the funkiest dance music coming out of Toronto right now.”

Check out a sample of TEEN’s tracks below:

Too Long – Daft Punk (TEEN Remix)

[audio:http://www.aux.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Too-Long-_Daft-Punk_.mp3|titles=Too Long – Daft Punk (TEEN Remix)]

Shoes of Glass – Valery Gore (TEEN Remix)

[audio:http://www.aux.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Shoes-of-Glass-_Valery-Gore_.mp3|titles=Shoes of Glass – Valery Gore (TEEN Remix)]

Hell Leather – TEEN

[audio:http://www.aux.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/hell-leather-master.mp3|titles=Hell Leather – TEEN]